Cracks in our ceiling

[lalena2148]

Ah, the joy of new home ownership. NOT! So we had a bad snowstrom last week and it blew off a couple shingles. So we have to get that repaired sometime soon. yay...:?

We had a guy come and look at some shingles uplifted on the other part of the roof last month, and I noticed since the guy walked on the roof, there are some cracks, and particularly one large one on the upper roof that has cathedral ceilings. Can you get cracks in the cathedral ceiling from walking on a roof? I figured you could since there is no attic,just the boards and shingles, above it.

The hairline ones I can fix, but the other one looks like the truss is pulling away from the wall. Either from moisture from a leak or moisture because Attic is cold, we have the heat on, creates condensation...etc.

Any people on the forum into home repair that could give me some pointers? I'll take some photos if needed. Thanks.

We'll have it looked at this week. :Sigh: more moolah towards the house...ullhair::boohoo:

 

[maherwoman]

I'll ask my hubby, Danny, what he thinks. He's been an electrician for about 10yrs now, and has done lots of other home repair type stuff, so I'm sure he could lend a hand with some advice.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Sounds like you might have some bad boards under the shingles. how old is the roof?

 

[lalena2148]

Bo B Bunny wrote:

Sounds like you might have some bad boards under the shingles. how old is the roof?

Well there's an addition on the house, so i'm not sure how old the boards are on the original part. They did the entire roofing in theupper addition 10 years ago and reshingled the roof downstairs 10 years ago as well. However, there are a lot of nailpops so I'm thinking maybe those and the boards (if they're curling) are a problem. They would probably be after 10 years, right?

 

[maherwoman]

Hey Rosie's husband here.

I would say based off what you said above, either the wall board (drywall) needs to be replaced with SCREWS or worse, the ceiling/ roof joists/ rafters need to be replaced.

Also, you may want to check the warranty on the roof itself if it was done in the last 20 years, most roofing companies give one between 15 - 30 years.

Otherwise, good luck with the repairs. Sorry I don't have better news about it.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

You might be able to get your home owner's insurance to help with the cost if they find that weather did part of it.

Ten years is not that long for a roof most of the time but there are things that can affect it - house settling with the new addition and things like that.

If you have popping nails.... something's not right.


NICE of Rosie's hubby to come by

That's his line of work so I'd definitely get it looked at.

 

[maherwoman]

Hehe...isn't he wonderful? I asked him to respond directly, hehe! Thought it would be neat to have him finally say something here on his own, hehe!

Hugs to you lalena...this can't be anything less than stressful for ya.

And, coming from someone who did years of work in the production department of a roofing company...

Do you still have your contract? It would certainly be a good idea to read the contract front and back to see if it has any stipulations about a cracked ceiling after they'd been on it. If it does, then I'd go the way of checking out home insurance to help out...but if it doesn't, they may be able to help. Not that I'm a big one on "stickin' it to the man", but if they caused the trouble, it'd be good for them to take responsibility.

The reason I say that...they know where and where not to step . The company I worked at had a case once where they had to reimburse a home owner some money for their foot coming through their ceiling. They were informed prior to work that you had a vaulted ceiling there, I'm sure...so they knew they needed to step differently there. If they didn't do that, then they should take responsibility for their actions.

You might look into having an inspector of some sort come take a look at it. You could also post some pictures here, so we can see it more directly.

Hugs to you in this stressful time,

Rosie*

 

[lalena2148]

maherwoman wrote:

Hehe...isn't he wonderful? I asked him to respond directly, hehe! Thought it would be neat to have him finally say something here on his own, hehe!

Hugs to you lalena...this can't be anything less than stressful for ya.

Tell your husband thank you so much! It was wonderful of him to post.

And yes it's UBER stressful...and now it's starting to snow too :X

And, coming from someone who did years of work in the production department of a roofing company...

Do you still have your contract? It would certainly be a good idea to read the contract front and back to see if it has any stipulations about a cracked ceiling after they'd been on it. If it does, then I'd go the way of checking out home insurance to help out...but if it doesn't, they may be able to help. Not that I'm a big one on "stickin' it to the man", but if they caused the trouble, it'd be good for them to take responsibility.

I'll have to look. See, we bought the house in June this year. The roof was done 11/97 I believe? I'll have to look but I'm not sure where the roofing papers are. I'll call my lawyer to see if it's in the copy of the contract? I know that when we bought the house, they were supposed to have sealed the nail pops before we move in (since they weren't going to completely redo the roof), but the shingles wouldn't have blown off so quickly with out the nail pops right?

The reason I say that...they know where and where not to step . The company I worked at had a case once where they had to reimburse a home owner some money for their foot coming through their ceiling. They were informed prior to work that you had a vaulted ceiling there, I'm sure...so they knew they needed to step differently there. If they didn't do that, then they should take responsibility for their actions.

Well this was a roofing company, and I can swear I mentioned it was a vaulted ceiling but I'm not sure... Like I said, I noticed them only sometime right after he was up there. I wasn't home when he looked. He just went onto the roof as scheduled. So I'm not sure.

You might look into having an inspector of some sort come take a look at it. You could also post some pictures here, so we can see it more directly.

Here you go...by the way we have 2 probs now. Although a roofer is on his way over to take a looksie in about 20 minutes. Yay for free estimates!

Here's the bedroom with the crack so you can get it in context with the other photos:
Bedroom(the crack is over by the window, on the white ceiling)
Full length of crack (teeheehee...I'm such a dork )
Crack (another view)
Wall & Ceiling with Crack
Hairline cracks in ceiling (not a huge deal, but it's in the same room. They're up in the ridge line. Again, didn't notice any until the guy was on the roof.)
Another hairline crack (again, in the ridgeline)

Now, my newest problem. Same second floor...the bathroom. I'm notorious for taking super hot steamy showers. My hubby barely likes it hot. He's weird! But, recently, I haven't had the fan on because...well its warmer when I get out. Problem is...paint is peeling. Probably because Hot shower creates moisture. Moisture against cold roof on other side of cathedral ceiling? Not good...

Bathroom before we moved in
Peeling paint by showerI know it's a moisture issue cause it's yellowed. BTW, notice how they didn't put moisture resistant dry wall on the roof....above a shower/tub :X
Peeling close up
New Peel starting over vanity

 

[lalena2148]

So, so we had a licensed bonded and insursed roofing company come over. They were very prompt and the estimate wasn't too bad.

Bathroom and crack problem: no water damage. hew: Stress fractures. The one in the bedroom is from a number for things. 1) a heating vent is right under that spot and it's been very cold out. 2) this is the same issue from the bathroom...the vent in the ceiling with the fan...isn't vented outside. It's vented INTO the attic! So all that hot air from showering is going into the attic. This also can cause stress fractures in the other room withthe warm meeting cold.

So he said we just need to replace the tape on the seams in the bedroom and bathroom, mud, and prime and paint. And the ceiling ones are just cosmetic but if we want to fix them, sand, joint compound, prime, paint.

OK, so that's solved. 10 shingles are torn off and need to be replaced. And the fan needs to be vented. HOWEVER, when we moved in, we knew we had nailpops. The inspector said they had to do something to fix it. They said they sealed it. Well, they sealed it all right; with roofing cement. Which, will harden in the winter, but crack in the summer. This roofer today said he hasn't seen a worse roof. NAIL POPS EVERYWHERE! He took photos and is going to email them to me. Not only are they everywhere but he said not on shingle is nailed in the right place. Plus, they even used the wrong sized nail on the whole job! :X

So here's my roof warranty dilemma. The people who owned the house up to 10/06 were a couple w/ 3 kids. Her boss (who owns a building company and also did the addition and roofing) traded houses with her. He was trying to flip it, but it was on the market for too long to be profitable. So we bought it in 7/07. There were 3 things they were supposed to have fixed before we moved in via the inspector's comments: vent the dryer out the roof instead of into the attic (duh), fix the nail pops, and reflash the skylight. Well folks, I'm still talking to my attorney because the skylight leaks badly after a hard rain. The a-hole builder won't get back to me, or my lawyer. So the odds on getting the roof fixed by him are slim to none.

Our only saving grace that we didn't have moisture is that we have 2 layers of shingles right now. But, he said, he wouldn't be surprised if we needed to (and we should) replace the entire roof and start from scratch in the next five years.

To replace the shingles and make an exhaust for the vent should be at $300. To replace the whole roof and do it from scratch in a few years, he said a high end estimate would be $4,600-$4,800.

Not too bad, but arrgh!

 

[seniorcats]

Oh my, good luck with your repairs. A word on sky lights - is it a bubble type sky light? They are notorious for leaking and replacing the flashing rarely fixes the leak. Best to replace with a venting sky light.

 

[maherwoman]

Wow, that's awful...I can't believe they didn't do what they were told, and were still able to sell the house! UGH...sometimes people can be so dishonest in construction, and it really fumes me! :X

All in all, though, those aren't bad numbers for fixing things. Getting that roofing inspector out to check things out was a smart idea!

And yeah, about the wrong size nails being used, that's so rediculous...not to mention having nailed in the incorrect place! The one thing I'll say: lots of roofing companies will hire Joe Schmoe that's hangin' out outside the Home Depot and bring them along to help with the work. I, personally, wouldn't ever do that, but it could've been what happened. And there are a LOT of such guys here that hang out outside home improvement stores...and I'm sure they can do handyman type stuff...but roofing? Nope!

Hugs to you...and lots of encouragement!! It sounds like you're on your way to getting this handled!

Rosie*

 

[slavetoabunny]

Welcome to the wonderful world of home ownership! The price you were quoted for a new roof doesn't sound bad - our new roof cost $8,600. That was a huge "ouch" in the pocketbook, but we couldn't get homeowners insurance unless we replaced it because it was 20 years old.

Good luck with your repairs.